Now I don’t know if this is holding true to any of the rest of you but for me, here in Ottawa Valley, Ontario, Canada.. we are right on track..

We had a drought in 2012, it was a good one.. but 2016 was far worse.. deeper, harder and more spread out covering more areas..

In 2012, we had a early spring, I was harvesting from my garden in june, I planted some things in March! March.. the summer itself was a wash out before of the dryness and the never ending heat.. my hugelbeds did well that year.. then we had a late wet fall that turned into a early snow filled winter.. dump after dump of snow.. the pack was deep and we shoveled off a small area to try and warm it up to plant it out in very late april, early may.. the seeds and bulbs and plants just sat there, cold and pouting at me.. then came the spring.. Rain, RAIN and more RAIN.. it Rained for week.. the ground was a soggy mess, we planted to see it run away, we planted to see them start and then rot in the ground..

We could not even get to the bottom half of the main garden, my hubby dug small drainage lines in the big gardens, we made raised compost beds that thrived and produced like a house on fire later in the season and the next year as well.

I take a lot of photo’s and I post them to facebook.. which means each day, facebook says to me.. would you like to see your memories and I look though them.. and I can tell you from my photos. that 2016 is right on target to 2012 for this time of the year..

We will see if the rest of the year is as well.. if so, I am going to need to really raise that small area almost like a paddock for Bo, because by the spring of 2012, we had snow pack that was close to four feet high in some areas, and while Brandy was a good girl, and would stand behind that itty bitty fence.. I can not expect the same from my boys..

but more important, I am planning my garden for a wet one, I am planning on putting the sheep into dry lot for the full spring, and the horses will need to have a smaller then normal area, as I intend to redo my pastures..

If the spring is as wet as I expect, if I do a mix of frost seeding and heavy green crop seeding, I should be able to get my pastures back into fighting shape with careful rotation grazing with a hot line and electic netting..

In the one back half area of the barn with the lean too.. half of it is a cement pad and half is a dirt floor, I will put the feeding on the cement to help give the horses time off the wet and I think I will plan for mats in the other half to create a dry loafing area and then lots of walks off the farm..

Its from the 2016 but it goes into a number of details that I like and good grafts and such if you are not already caught up on it..

So here is my question for you? A) are you having a repeat of the weather in your area from 4 years ago? b) Are you planning for its effects in your pastures, your farm or your gardens in 2017? c) if you facebook, are you finding the memory day updates interesting and useful as a journal type tool?

Farmgals Bucket List : Farmgal's Bucket List

I am sorry to have this rant, I might not even post this.. I most likely will and I am sure I will lose a reader or two.. but I have to write this.. If you live in an apartment or a tiny condo in the city, you can be many things.. You can be […]

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